Alan Stewart’s UK and Ireland family history news

Forest of Dean Parish Records Project July 2009 Progress Report

The Forest of Dean transcription project has now been running for just over three and a half years, during which time around 700,000 records have been added to the database.

In the latest progress report, Graham Davison, the Project Co-ordinator, says, “We have added to our database some marriages from within the city of Gloucester:

Gloucester Cathedral;

Gloucester Holy Trinity;

Gloucester St Mary de Lode.

“The mission of our website is to provide resources for researchers who have ancestors and families that lived in the Forest of Dean and its borders. I would like to emphasise that we have no intention to expand our scope outside of these areas, and the only reason we have a few non-Forest of Dean records is to assist our researchers who had families that moved in or out of the Forest.

“In addition to these Church of England records, all of the Gloucestershire Forest of Dean non-conformist records are being added to the database, together with the non-conformist records from the Herefordshire and Monmouthshire border areas.

“It is estimated that when the project is nearing completion in about 12 months time, the database will contain over 800,000 records.

“For Gloucestershire we are now filming the most recent (post 1900) parish and non-conformist registers, together with all the marriages from Gloucester parishes, and it is hoped that these will be completed by the end of the year.

“For Monmouthshire we have been working closely with Mike John and have copied most of the available transcripts of border parishes from his website. We are currently adding Monmouth to the database.

“Progress on the Herefordshire border parishes has been slower, but we will only need one more visit to the Record Office to complete the filming.

“We have now started the task of photographing the pre-1812 Bishops Transcripts, starting with the Gloucestershire parishes. So far, six are complete or in hand. The plan is to send out the parish registers, the BTs and the current transcripts to volunteers, so that they can be checked and updated with any additional information that is in the BTs but not the parish registers.

“There are also 11 Gloucestershire registers that are still held in the churches, and plans are now in hand to get the majority of these photographed this year. The parishes concerned are Abenhall, Beachley, Bulley, Churcham, Corse, Maisemore, Rudford and Tainton.

“It’s good to hear that so many researchers are benefiting from the database. We are greatly indebted to all the transcribers without whom none of this would have been possible.”